Japanese armed sloopKaimon 1886-1887
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Kaimon
Ordered	1877 Fiscal Year
Builder	Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan
Laid down	1 September 1877
Launched	28 August 1882
Commissioned	13 March 1884
Stricken	21 May 1905
Fate	Mined off Port Arthur 5 July 1904
General characteristics
Type	Steam corvette
Displacement	1,358 long tons (1,380 t)
Length	64.68 m (212 ft 2 in)
Beam	10.9 m (35 ft 9 in)
Draft	5.2 m (17 ft 1 in)
Propulsion	Horizontally-mounted reciprocating engine, 1,267 hp (945 kW) 4 boilers 1 shaft
Sail plan	bark-riggedsloop
Speed	12knots (14 mph; 22 km/h)
Range	256 tons coal
Complement	210
Armament	1 × 170 mm (6.7 in)Krupp breech-loading guns 6 × 120 mm (4.7 in) Krupp guns 1 × 80 mm (3.1 in) gun 4 × 25 mm (1 in) quadrupleNordenfelt guns 1 × 11.5 mm (0.45 in) quadruple Nordenfelt guns

Kaimon (海門,Sea Gate)^[1] was a sail-and-steam corvette of the earlyImperial Japanese Navy. Although the nameKaimon translates to "sea gate", the ship was named forMount Kaimon, although written with differentkanji, located inKagoshima prefecture.

Kaimon was a three-mastedbark-riggedsloop-of-war with a coal-fired double expansion reciprocatingsteam engine with four boilers driving a single screw.^[2] She waslaid down at theYokosuka Naval Arsenal on 1 September 1877,launched on 28 August 1882 andcommissioned on 13 March 1884.^[3] Her construction required over six years, due to numerous technical issues and problems with funding.

The design ofKaimon was almost identical to the corvetteTenryū, completed a year later at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. Both ships were designed by Frenchforeign advisors to the earlyMeiji government in the employ of theYokosuka Naval Arsenal.^[2]During her launching ceremony, a flock of whitedoves (the traditional messengers of the war godHachiman) was released, setting a precedent for all future launchings of Japanese warships. Her first captain was Lieutenant CommanderTsuboi Kōzō.

Kaimon saw combat service in theFirst Sino-Japanese War, at the landings of Japanese forces atChemulpo in Korea, and subsequently at theBattle of Yalu River under the command of Lieutenant CommanderSakurai Kikunozo. She also served with the Japanese task force that supported theinvasion of Taiwan in 1895.

On 21 March 1898,Kaimon was re-designated as a third-classcoastal defense ship, and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties.

During theRusso-Japanese War,Kaimon was assigned to patrol duties between theKorean Peninsula andTsushima Strait. She was also used as a transport.^[2] She struck anaval mine on 5 July 1904, offPort Arthur (38°50′N121°50′E / 38.833°N 121.833°E /38.833; 121.833), and sunk with the loss of her captain and 22 crewmen. She was struck from thenavy list on 21 May 1905.

• Corbett, Sir Julian.Maritime Operations in The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. (1994) Originally classified, and in two volumes,ISBN 1-55750-129-7
• Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors),All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002,ISBN 0-85177-133-5
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976).Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
• Lengerer, Hans (September 2020). "The 1882 Coup d'État in Korea and the Second Expansion of the Imperial Japanese Navy: A Contribution to the Pre-History of the Chinese-Japanese War 1894–95".Warship International.LVII (3):185–196.ISSN 0043-0374.
• Lengerer, Hans (December 2020). "The 1884 Coup d'État in Korea — Revision and Acceleration of the Expansion of the IJN: A Contribution to the Pre-History of the Chinese-Japanese War 1894–95".Warship International.LVII (4):289–302.ISSN 0043-0374.

• Screw sloops of the Imperial Japanese Navy
• 1882 ships
• Naval ships of Japan
• First Sino-Japanese War naval ships of Japan
• Russo-Japanese War naval ships of Japan
• Three-masted ships
• Ships built by Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
• Maritime incidents in 1904
• Shipwrecks in the Yellow Sea
• Shipwrecks of the Russo-Japanese War
• Ships sunk by mines

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